You Want to See A Championship Team

2013.  The University of Georgia.  National Champions.

That's what you want to see.  That's why you watch the games on Saturdays.  That's why you scour the blogosphere for the rest of the week.  That's why you dig through the numbers in my blog.  That's why you dare to click on a Bleacher Report article.  That's why you follow every link The Senator puts on his board.  You are a Dawgfan, and you want to see our team as National Champions.

We lost the first game.  Your pride was hurt.  But still, you want to see us as National Champions.  You listened to the experts when they told you that it's ok for Georgia to lose that game.  If there was gonna be one, it had to be that one.  It had to be the Non-Con game that was against a great football team.  You want to see our team as National Champions, so you keep tuning in.

Though the game was tight, we BEASTED South Carolina.  Normally you get excited when The OBC throws his visor.  This time, he threw in the towel.  He went to the locker room with timeouts in his pocket, an 8.5 minute drive having pounded all the fight out of him.  Our defense was less than stellar, yet still you believed.  Because you want to see our team as National Champions.

We struggled against LSU.  We were able to pull out a gutsy, emotional win...but we looked bad on defense doing it.  The kid who was too salty to be a Dawg almost cooked our goose.  But we have faith in a player who has done nothing but do everything right since day 1.  He played out of his mind, and we beat the second #6 team we'd faced.  In the waning moments, when our defense faced Mettenberger, you thought we might lose.  You've "seen too much Georgia football" - maybe you've just been a fan of sports in the state of Georgia for too long.  The Braves.  The Falcons.  The Dawgs.  They'll give you heart attacks.  So, when Metts got into the shotgun, you put your hands over your eyes....but you split two fingers, because you just had to watch.  Because you want to see our team as National Champions.

Then we went into a "trap" game.  A team with nothing too lose, playing against a team with everything to lose - except its starting Tailback, who'd already been lost - in one of the largest, loudest stadiums in all of college football.  We'd come off an emotional win.  We were wounded and tired.  Player after Player went down to injury.  You couldn't believe it.  You thought "this is where it all ends.  This is where "living dangerously" finally catches up to us.  We gave up a fourteen point lead in the second half.  You wanted to hurl your remote at the tv, and shut it off.  But you didn't.  You watched, because you want to see a Championship Georgia Team.

...

You know what a Championship Team is?  They're a team that's been through the ringer.  They've faced it all.  They've seen adversity, and had to fight through it.  They've stared down the barrel of  a painful loss, and laughed at the next bullet in the chamber.  The "easy road" does not make a champion.  A Championship is unlike anything else in competition.  You look back, and you have to think "Just how in the hell did we get here?"  A Championship Team is special.  They are unified.  They have one goal, and they will push themselves - and each other - to the brink in order to succeed in that goal. They do not make excuses, but learn from their mistakes.  They take ownership and responsibility, and when the chips are down, they buck up.

Just watch this afternoon.  Watch these Georgia Bulldogs.  See if they have what it takes.  They face a confident 5-0 Missouri team.  They're missing a TON of starters.  They're missing leadership.  They're missing talent.  They're missing production.  The defense is learning on the job.  The offense is patchwork at best.  They are looking up at Everest, and realizing they left their boots on the plane.  They have no time, no room, no need for excuses.  They have to adjust.  They have to survive. They have to fight through the adversity and the pain and every surprise that comes at them, and they have to win.  They have to do that, because You want to see the 2013 Georgia Bulldogs as National Champions.

Go Dawgs.